Saturday, June 16, 2012

One thing that I have to come to terms with is having a semi - girly girl. She's not totally girly girl - she plays in the sandbox with the best of them, gets filthy, runs, scampers, and picks her nose occasionally. But, she, like most girls of 2 1/2 years, she is into the "princess" thing. As much as we try to not do a lot of commercial type things, like commercial TV, shirts that say "Daddy's Little Princess", the girls in her pre-school peer group seem to just naturally gravitate towards princess-like things.

I'm trying to work on making her things that (1) work for her coloring and (2) that she will like. The majority of my wardrobe is black. Probably not the first choice for most two year olds. And, what she really wants to wear, is what she calls a "pretty dress". I don't know how some of her dresses qualify to become the "pretty dress", but some are, and some are not.

This is the Jump Rope dress from my absolute favorite pattern company, Oliver + S. I made this in some pale green and pale coral seersucker. The placket and collar are white linen.

When I completed the dress, and she put it on, she said "I am a princess". Success.

The dress is not easy, but it is not crazy-difficult. It has a perfect collar, that is the perfect frame for a little girl face.

The instructions to construct the placket are perfect. Probably the most important instruction is at the end, where you are instructed to do a "little fiddling" to make it look just right. I sewed this over about a week - doing just a little bit in the evenings after work. I'm usually good for about 20 minutes of sewing at the end of a long work day....

It has a sweet belt, that hits just at the waist, and the gathers are slightly below, which I think may be the part that Julia likes the best. I love the way this looks at the back...

I did make the button tabs on the sleeves a bit larger - I used white linen for the placket and collar, and I wasn't able at all to make the tiny tabs that the pattern included.

I did search about a million images in the Oliver + S Flickr group to decide if I should make a white belt, a self belt, white belt loops, or self belt loops. Then, of course, I had to find the absolutely perfect buttons....I wonder if people who design/manufacture children's clothing for a living agonize over details as much as sewing moms do....